The Northwest Lions Foundation for Sight & Hearing
Many years ago, Helen Keller spoke at the Lions Clubs International Convention and challenged the Lions to become "knights of the blind".
Today we embrace the conservation of sight as one of our primary objectives. We do this locally and globally through our contributions and fundraisers for our club, our charitable foundation, the Northwest Lions Foundation for Sight and Hearing and the Lions Club International Foundation. We collect, clean, sort and recycle eyeglasses for distribution through the NW Lions Eyeglass Recycling Center in Lacey, WA. Our club provides eyeglasses and reconditioned hearing aids for low income residents of Bremerton on a case by case basis. We have purchased hearing and vision screening equipment for testing young children in our area. We can host the Lions Health Screening Van for screenings for blood pressure, diabetes, hearing, glaucoma and vision at no cost to the community. Our club members routinely transfer donated corneal tissue from our eye bank in Seattle to transplant recipients in Kitsap County.
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Hardly a "bank", it is a busy,
high-tech medical laboratory for processing and
evaluating donor eyes for quality corneal tissue. Since formation, the Eye
Bank has provided over 20,000 cornea transplants.
Providing eye tissue recovery and distribution, family support and
bereavement programs, our highly-trained technicians
coordinate the process from the beginning, through screening and placement
of tissue with surgeons. We are now a leader in
the national and international cornea transplant community.
Started in 1996, this
specially-equipped unit travels to communities throughout
Washington and Northern Idaho. It provides free health screening for
vision, glaucoma, hearing, diabetes and blood pressure.
The Lions Health Screening Unit is staffed by local Lions Club members and
community health professional volunteers. In 2000,
the LHSU screened over 25,000 individuals, including over 8,000 children.
The Foundation funds the
operation of five low vision clinics. These grant
supported clinics, located in Bellevue, Spokane, and Vancouver,
Washington. The newest clinic, the Lions Pediatric Low
Vision Clinic is located in Silverdale Washington and is funded by the
Lions Sight & Hearing Foundation and the people
with visual impairments. Trained low vision specialists prescribe
appropriate visual aid devices such as magnifiers,
monoculars, and closed circuit televisions for enlarging printed materials.
The Hearing Aid Bank is dedicated
to helping individuals hear well in every
community in Washington and Northern Idaho. To this end, it collects and
redistributes donated hearing aids, that have been
recased and recalibrated, to hard of hearing individuals who could not
otherwise afford them. |
